WestLB Stake Sale
Could Spur Sector

If Private Bank Steps In,
It May Set Precedent, Clear
Path to More Privatizations

Edited by Hugo Dixon

Updated June 16, 2005 12:01 a.m. ET

A year ago it would have been unthinkable. But now, less than a month after their sweeping victory in North Rhine Westphalia, the Christian Democrats and Free Democrats are preparing to sell the state's stake in WestLB, Germany's best-known Landesbank. Coming on the heels of the takeover of HVB, Germany's second-largest private bank, the shift could herald the start of a much-needed shake-up of the entire German banking sector.

Germany's state-owned wholesale banks have long been a byword for political meddling in the...